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I've been to Tonga and to American and Western Samoa. This was in January of 1976, so it's been a while.

I spent a day in Tonga - not much time. But the one full night I spent there, I went to an outdoor pig roast (don't know how to spell loo-wow)on the beach. The feast, which was awesome, was followed by native dancing in a cave, which created un indelible lifetime memory. The women dance similarly to SE Asia, very delicately with a lot of handwork. The men dance as warriors, including a fire dance. AWESOME entertainment, beautiful and friendly people.

I also went to both Western and American Samoa. Western Samoa was beautiful, the people were very friendly and very happy. Since they have all they need in their front yards, they work (at least back then) when they feel like it. So service can be somewhat unreliable. But a young man spent an entire day taking us to the beach where they filmed "Return to Paradise" and I swam in the reef amongst neon-colored fish.

American Samoa, on the other hand, made me ashamed to be an American. Contrasting the happy, friendly Western Samoans with the American Samoans was heartbreaking. I won't write you a book about it right now, but in a nutshell, the Western Samoans eat all fresh food; American Samoans have their food imported from America in cans. If you go to Samoa, go to Western Samoa. (American Samoa was pretty enough - but the people were not friendly.)

I lived and worked in Pago for 6 years, 1965-71. Been back 8 times, last visit in 1995. Both Samoas are beautiful. Howver, one day in American Samoa would be plenty, both ends of the island are very pretty. Western Samoa, the real Samoa, will take days to see. You need to go to Sava'i also.